Talk Gooder: 3 Lessons From Stephen King’s “On Writing”

One of my favorite books about writing is Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. The book is half King’s story of how he got started writing and published his first book, and half tips, tools, and ideas on how to be a great writer. And, since it’s written by Stephen king, it’s a damned fine read. Anyone who wants to write anything (especially fiction) should read it.

The book is great for anyone who wants to be a great speaker too. This is true for two reasons:

1. Speeches are written before they are spoken. Unless you are 100% winging it (which I advise against), you are going to do some writing first.
2. Great speeches have great stories. Reading this book will help you craft better stories.

I re-read “On Writing” probably about once a year. As I am doing that now, I thought I would share three nuggets of wisdom with you:

On Writing and Rewriting

“‘When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story,’ he said. ‘When you rewrite your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.’ (page 47)

In this quote King is actually quoting John Gould who was the editor of a paper King wrote for in high school. About Gould, King says, “I took my fair share of English lit classes in my two remaining years at Lisbon, and my fair share of composition, fiction, and poetry classes in college, and John Gould taught me more than any of them, and in no more than ten minutes.”

(There’s a side motivational lesson here: wisdom can come from many places, not just traditional learning environments. Keep your ears and mind open at all times…)

This is a great idea that any speaker should embrace. Your first draft is for you; get all your ideas out and onto a page (or into a video or audio recorded). But then rewrite by simply removing all extraneous bits and pieces.

I have seen many a good speech derailed because the speaker goes on tangents, or seemingly rambles, or gives too much unnecessary background information. All of those elements could be considered, “not the story.” By simply going through our material and removing everything that is not vital to the delivery of our content, we make our speeches tighter, more effective, and simply better.

On Pushing Through

“Running a close second was the realization that stopping a piece of work just because it’s hard, either emotionally or imaginatively, is a bad idea. Sometimes you have to go on when you don’t feel like it, and sometimes you’re doing good work when it feels like all you’re managing is shoveling shit from a sitting position.” (page 69)

This quote is in reference to Carrie, King’s first published novel, and the book that launched his career. In “On Writing,” King recounts how when he started writing Carrie he didn’t much like it and felt it wouldn’t sell and would be hard to write, so he threw away what he had started. Later that night when he came home he saw that his wife had pulled his pages from the trash and told him she thought there was something there and that he should continue.

Amazing. The book that launched Stephen King’s career started out in the trash. Who knows what might have happened if his wide had not spotted those pages in the trash…

I think this quote is great for speakers to hear because it cuts right to the heart of the matter: creativity can be hard! Staring at a blank page is hard! Crafting a great speech is hard! The people who do the best, as speakers or writers (or really anything) are the ones who don’t pack it in when things get hard. They just keep plugging away, and the work gets better, and sometimes, even when they think they’re work stinks, they’re actually on to something.

I think this is why so many people prefer to “wing it.” They like to say things to themselves like, “oh, I’m much better when I just go off the cuff.” Maybe. But it’s much more likely that they are just afraid, overwhelmed, and find the thought of sitting down to write a speech too hard. There may be a few people who are better when they improvise, but I can say that I have studied, performed, and taught improvisation for over 18 years and my primary motivation for wanting to “wing it” is that sometimes sitting down to prepare just feels too damned hard. But that’s when you have to push through.

On Stories

“I want you to understand that my basic belief about the making of stories is that they pretty much make themselves. The job of a writer is to give them a place to grow.” (Page 159)

As an improviser, this is my favorite quote. Stephen King rarely plots his novels. He starts with a situation and a vague idea of character and starts writing, and the story takes on a life of its own. As he says in another part of the book, he believe that stories are like fossils that already exist and simply need to be discovered and excavated.

This is basically an improvisers approach to writing. Get caught up in the moment, in the story, and see where it takes you. If you can get caught up as a writer wondering where things are going, it becomes pretty likely that your reader will too.

As a speaker, this is a great way to work on a speech. Sometimes speakers get so caught up outlining the speech that they completely cut themselves off from the creative process.

When I work with speakers, one on one or at The Speaking School, I will often have them do exercises that put them in the moment and just get them talking at a fast pace on their topic. From this unplanned, un-outlined form, some brilliant ideas will often occur.

If you find yourself getting stuck developing a speech, try using this method. Simply stand up an imagine you are in front of a crowd, get your energy up, and start delivering your material. Don’t edit, and don’t worry about where exactly you are going (that’s for “rewriting,” remember?) Then take a look at all the ideas you came up with, and see how they can be added to your speech. This is a much more dynamic and creative way of developing content than just sitting at a desk writing an outline.

There you have it. Three ideas from Stephen King that can help you be a better speaker. I highly advise you read (and re-read. and re-read) “On Writing.” But until you do, start with these three ideas and see how they help your presentations soar.

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Want some help being a better speaker or putting together a great presentation? Then check out Avish’s One on one consulting page to see how he can help you right away. Or, sign up for the next Speaking School and get four days of immersive training! 

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By Avish Parashar. As the world's only Motivational Improviser, Avish uses techniques from the world of improv comedy to engage, entertain, and educate audiences on ideas around change, creativity, and motivation. Connect with Avish on Google+

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